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"I hope Members will adopt a similar stance so that we can resolve this issue as expeditiously as possible," he said.
Noting that critics of the proposed SLS claimed that the Government merely gave a new name to the General Scheme which had been terminated, Mr Wong said this was not a fair nor reasonable comment.
"Our proposed scheme is different from the existing scheme in three main areas. First, it has no industry sub-quota; application for imported labour will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
"Secondly, the application has to pass three tests, namely, open recruitment, Labour Department's job matching programme and the alternative of ERB retraining, before it is processed further.
"Thirdly, the operation of the scheme will be monitored by the Labour Advisory Board and by the Manpower Panel of the Legislative Council," he said.
Mr Wong said the special scheme for the new airport and related projects was of paramount importance to the completion of the new airport on time and it was not covered in the earlier review on the general scheme.
He assured that adequate measures had been in place to safeguard the employment opportunities of local workers and the Government had no intention to make any changes to the airport scheme.
End/Thursday, November 2, 1995
Review on graduate teacher posts completed by year end
The Government is aware of the possible mismatch between demand and supply of primary graduate teachers before 2007 and has set up a Working Group under the Education and Manpower Branch to consider the issue and recommend solutions.
The Working Group expects to complete the review by the end of this year.